Staff Reports
WC Monitor
11/20/2015
The Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB) gained traction Tuesday in efforts to redirect money collected from missed cleanup milestones at Department of Energy sites back to those same cleanup projects. Eight local boards fall under the EMSSAB, including the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB). The CAB voted Tuesday on the EMSSAB recommendation to spend penalty dollars on supplemental environmental projects – ones under which a violator voluntarily agrees to undertake an enforcement but is not legally obligated to do so. The recommendation would use the funds at the respective DOE sites in lieu of assessing fines and penalties. The recommendation was approved by an overwhelming 19-2 vote and will now go to the EMSSAB, which is also tallying votes from the other local advisory boards.
CAB member Bill Rhoten said he had been on the fence about the recommendation before voting against it Tuesday. The supplemental environmental projects could add extra funding to promote waste work but the voluntary nature of the agreements are concerning, Rhoten said. "If the regulators aren’t going to impose the fines, then the supplemental environmental projects seem like a good idea. But I’d like to see the issue worked out with the agencies involved before it comes to that."
CAB member and former Savannah River Site employee Dawn Gillas voted in favor of the recommendation, saying it would make sense to redirect missed deadline money back to the projects. Generally for penalties issued by the state, the money goes to the state General Fund, and some portion might go to the county in which the violation occurred.
Gillas pointed out that the local SRS basis for the vote derives from the 36 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste stored in 44 waste storage tanks. The Department of Energy is on pace to begin missing milestones in its agreement with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) following the May 2016 closure of Tank 12. The May deadline represents a new date agreed upon by the two agencies after funding issues and delays caused DOE to miss the previous deadline of Sept. 30. The delay is expected to begin a cycle of missed deadlines for future tank closures, SCDHEC previously reported.
The department has already missed another significant waste cleanup milestone by not starting up operations at the SRS Salt Waste Processing Facility by Oct. 31. The department is negotiating new deadline agreements for start-up of the facility with SCDHEC. The state agency could have attempted to levy more than $150 million in penalties but agreed to wait until at least Dec. 18 before making a decision.
Savannah River Site Watch Director and watchdog Tom Clements said the matter puts SCDHEC in position to hold DOE’s feet to the fire on several other issues. Missed milestones are an indication that SRS should not focus on accepting any other forms of waste or nuclear materials from other locations, he said. Those materials include the possible receipt of highly enriched uranium from Germany and the expected receipt next year of uranium from Canada. On the EMSSAB recommendation itself, Clements said he supports SCDHEC pushing to meet the milestone rather than CAB voting to redirect funds. "I think a better approach is if Congress actually appropriates adequate funding for the projects," Clements said. "Part of this fine issue is that there are usually caveats involved like whether funding is available to pay the fines."
